Mood:  a-ok

I've got the perfect Christmas gift!

It's perfect for homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers.

It's a gift that will keep on giving.

It's a gift that will help others and be really fun for kids and adults alike.

It's a gift that won't have your kids sitting in front of a game system all day long.

It's a gift that you can buy for the whole family and would cost less than a lot of other gifts that you might by.

It's a gift where you can spread the payments out all year long.

It's a gift that won't break!

It's a gift that will have life long value.

It's a gift that is tax deductible!

It's a gift that you can give to someone who "has everything"!

It's a gift that's easy to wrap but your family will still be surprised.

It's a gift that is perfect for asperger kids (like my Joshua), handicapped kids, the elderly...really for everyone.

So...what is this fantastically, too good to be true, wonderful gift?

You promise not to exit my blog when I tell you?

You promise to read further?

You promise to really think about it and consider giving this gift?

Then I'll tell you.

How about giving a...

this Christmas?

How can a Compassion Child be a great Christmas gift?

Can it really be all of the things I said above?

I can be all of those things plus more!

It can be inexpensive:

• Sponsoring a Compassion International child is just $33 a month. That's a lot less than on Starbuck's coffee a day.
• You can pay for a full year of sponsorship at once, or you can pay monthly. 

It can be educational:

• Teach your child about the world. Remember, Compassion Children are from all over the world.
• Teach your child letter writing skills. A big part of Compassion is writing letters to your Compassion child. It can be an assignment for homeschool. Just throw it in one of your children's workboxes (only a true homeschooler will know what that means ).
• Teach your child about poverty.
• Teach your child about helping others.
• Teach your child to look for bargains as you shop for inexpensive, special things to send to your Compassion child.

Sponsoring a child is very special and rewarding:

• Your life will never be the same and neither will the life of the special child that you sponsor.
• You will soon love your new child as if he were part of your family, and you child will love you the same. Here is one of the letters that we recently received from our little Ismael - 7 years old from Nicaragua.

Esteemed sponsors, Tim and Sarah Tinkel. Ismael hopes that you're in good health next to your children and loved ones. He tells you that he has been in sick, but he already feels better. he's happy, because he started his elementary school this year and he really likes to attend to school. He learns many Bible stories at the project. He says that he has heard Moses' story and he was surprised to know how God led the people of Israel through the desert and what attract his attention is how God with his power did go past to all the people of Israel through the sea. He says that God is almighty and merciful with us. He says that he's praying a lot for you and he hopes that you pray for him, because he wants to become true his dream. He hopes to travel someday to know snow and he has to study a lot to do it and that's why he asks for you to pray for him. He hopes that your wife's mom is better. He continues praying for her. He thanks God for having you. he hopes that you're well. Is in good health your wife's mom? He hopes so.

With love, Ismael Jose Arias Narvaez

This letter was written with help of the teacher Juania Navarrete.

I didn't correct the language errors because I wanted you to know what a real letter was like from your sponsored child. I had asked him what his favorite Bible story was and we had been talking about snow. That's why he made references to those things. And, yes, Sarah's mom is doing fine. Could it be in part because of the sweet prayers of a little seven year old from Nicaragua?

Sponsoring a Compassion International child really is a special thing. Please pray about giving the gift of sponsorship to your family and to a special international child this Christmas. Just click here or on the banner above for more information. 

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This video from Compassion International caught my eye because it features a boy from Indonesia. Indonesia is where our Somi is from.

Somi, like all of our Compassion kids, is very special to us. He, our third Compassion child, came to us on March 25, 2010. We sponsor six Compassion children from all around the world. One we financially sponsor and for five we are correspondence sponsors.

A big part of Compassion International is the relationship that you have with your children. Compassion really encourages you to write to them. Some children, however, have sponsors that either can't write to them or don't want to write to them. That's where the correspondence sponsor comes in. Correspondence sponsors develop a relationship with their children just as if they were the regular sponsor. In fact, the children don't know any different. They think that the correspondence sponsor is their regular sponsor. That really doesn't bother Sarah and I because we have already vowed that if, for some reason, one of our children's regular sponsor couldn't afford to sponsor them anymore then we would take over the payments. We don't know how we would do it, we are already stretched to the limit, but we would do something.  

Over the years that we have been sponsoring with Compassion International we have realized how important those special relationships are. I think you may get a glimpse of how critical it is through this video:

Hopefully the above video gave you some idea of how important letter writing is to a Compassion child. If you would like more information on Compassion International, just click here or on any one of the links above. Please prayerfully consider it.

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You all know that I am a big fan of Compassion International. Our family financially sponsors one child, Marcelo from Bolivia, and we are correspondence sponsors to five other children from around the world. A correspondence sponsor is someone who writes to children if their financial sponsor is unable or unwilling to write to them. Our correspondence children are: Feyber from Colombia, Somi from Indonesia, Emmanuel from Tanzania, Ismael from Nicaragua and Yvone from Rwanda. Each one is special to us. We write to them all at least once a month and, every year, we send them at least one package.

Today, I received an email from our friend Kees. Kees is the wonderful person who introduced us to Compassion International. He sponsors (financially and correspondence) over 20 kids himself and travels to Bolivia representing Compassion International almost every year. This past summer was no exception. He spent three months working with Compassion in Bolivia and taking pictures and videos of children to be used to promote the sponsorship of children when he got back home.

Attached to his email was a delightful video that shows what it takes to just get a simple picture of a child. That picture is enclosed in a packet so that Compassion can find a sponsor for the child. Compassion has rules for child photographs. There can't be another person in the background nor can there be an animal, like a dog or a cat, in the background.

Observe how hard it is to get one picture taken while a whole group of children are waiting in the wings for their photos.

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Give a child hope today. Click on the banner at the top of this page.

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I know that there are folks that probably wonder why we are so involved with Compassion International. I just viewed this youtube video and thought that it was a perfect response to the question, "Why do you sponsor a child with Compassion International?". Watch and enjoy. And, if you are interested in knowing more about Compassion International just click on one of the links.

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